N.C. House Bill looks to re-classify juvenile offenders

North Carolina and New York are the only states in the nation that automatically try 16-year-old offenders as adult criminals.

But if a bill moving through the house and senate passes – and it’s expected that it will – New York will stand alone.

House Bill 280 would raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction from 16 to 18 for low-level felonies and misdemeanors and, if passed and signed by the governor, would go into effect on December 1, 2019.

According to advocates, it’s a win-win situation for the state and for young offenders.

Similar bills have been attempted, and have failed in the past. The current bill is the result of studies and input by several associations and organizations, including the N.C. Sheriff’s Association. “When we stop charging teens as adults we can ensure they receive the services they need to learn from their mistakes, and develop new skills that will help them grow up successfully,” according to Michelle Hughes, executive director of N.C. Child, a child advocacy group that operates out of Raleigh.

The law would affect only non-violent offenders. Sixteen-year-old offenders of upper-level felonies, classes A through E, will still find themselves facing adult court.

But Adam Sotak, public engagement director for N.C. Child, said that would bring most younger teens out of the adult system. “The data shows that only 3 percent of the total crime committed by 16- and 17-year-olds (are A-E felonies),” he said. “Eighty percent of their crimes are misdemeanors.”

According to a news release issued by N.C. Child, “Adolescence is a time when many youth make minor mistakes that can result in police involvement.” Those teens wind up in jail and prison, often in the company of hardened criminals. The end result is a high recidivism rate.

If those same non-violent teens were in the juvenile system, however, “ the juvenile system requires frequent contact with court counselors, assessments, rehabilitative services, mental health and substance abuse treatment, counseling and education. It also involves families in keeping young people on the right path.”

In other words, Sotak said, “These kids get a better shot at rehabilitation, to stay out of the criminal justice system, if they go through this.”

Much of the bill is the result of a 30-page “Juvenlie Reinvestment” study carried out by the North Carolina Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice, chaired by Chief N.C. Supreme Court Justice Mark Martin.

According to the study, “North Carolina shows a significant 7.5 percent decrease in recidivism when teens are adjudicated in the juvenile versus the adult system,” while, “when youthful offenders are prosecuted in the adult system, they recidivate at a rate that is 12.6 percent higher than the overall population.”

The report addresses arguments “that prosecuting youthful offenders in criminal court has an important deterrent effect.”

Citing a John Locke Foundation report, it states, “The studies all show that, perhaps due to minors’ lack of maturity or less-than-developed frontal cortex, which controls reasoning, legislative efforts to inflict criminal court jurisdiction and punishments upon minors have not deterred crime.

Even more than adult offenders, the very problem with juvenile offenders is that too often they do not think carefully before committing their misdeeds, and they rarely, if ever, review the statutory framework to determine the consequences.”

Local sheriffs Jerry Monette of Craven County and Chris Davis of Pamlico County agree with the Sheriff’s Association’s endorsement of the bill.

“From a criminal standpoint we don’t see an issue with it,” Davis said, while Monette noted that legislators have “come up with something that I think everybody can live with.”

The biggest change for the local sheriffs’ offices will be in housing. If 16-year-olds are removed from adult courts, they also have to be removed from adult populations in prisons.

At Craven County, Monette argued that this won’t be that big of a change. “We’ll have to isolate the area in our (jail) facility,” he said, but argued that, to an extent, the county already does this.

The problem is a little tighter in Pamlico where the jail is smaller. “It’s going to put some extra burden on us for housing inmates,” he said, “it’s going to cost Pamlico County some money.

“We don’t have the space to house juveniles because we have so many adult inmates,” he said. “It would cost too much bed space.”

Juveniles now are housed in separate facilities in other areas such as Greenville and Raleigh. If the age of offenders rises to 17, then there will be more juvenile offenders to deal with. “We’re working to house those juveniles in a facility closer to Pamlico County,” he said, but for now “we house them wherever we can.”

District Attorney Scott Thomas, who is also president of the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys, admitted there was initial concern over the bill, particularly if it had been a carte-blanche system that simply made all offenders under 18 juveniles.

“As prosecutors, our primary concern is public safety and holding criminals accountable for their conduct,” he said. “Our concerns with raising the juvenile age have always been about maintaining our authority to prosecute violent juveniles and serious felonies in regular adult court and having additional prosecutors in juvenile court to handle the increased caseload.”

To accept any such bill, he said, the NCCDA insisted that “District attorneys… be able to give balanced consideration for community safety, victims’ rights, offender accountability and competency development in offenders.”

The bill automatically places violent offenders as adults, however, and gives prosecutors the option of requesting a judge try them as adults in lower cases as well, if circumstances so prescribe.

Thomas also emphasized a need for “appropriate and necessary funding… to hire additional prosecutors and legal assistants” to handle the expected increased load in the specialized juvenile court system. It is not clear if the bill provides for such costs.

Aside from any local concerns on the additional cost of housing juveniles, Sotak said studies show the law will actually make costs lower for the state. “The commission’s report shows that the state saves money over the longer term due to lower recidivism rates and higher earnings of kids who (successfully leave) the criminal justice system,” he said. “The other thing to note is that juvenile crime has gone down 40 percent in the state over the last decade. So, even though there’ll be 16 and 17 year olds coming in the juvenile system, the caseload has gone down… We’re in a better position to absorb these kids into the system right now.”

Sotak emphasized the across-the-aisle support for the bill, from Republican senators to the Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein. Among the organizations voicing support are the North Carolina Sheriff’s Assocation, the N.C. Chamber Legal Institute, the John Locke Foundation.

Sotak is particularly pleased that – in this day and age of conflict between parties – HB 280 is “a refreshingly bipartisan effort… this is something that’s actually bringing people together from a broad spectrum saying, ‘Hey, this is the right thing for kids to do in North Carolina.’”

Contact Bill Hand at bill.hand@newbernsj.com, 252-635-5677, and follow him @BillHandNBSJ.

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